With much signal processing circuitry manufactured in integrated circuit form, it is desirable for the IC manufacturer to minimize the number of connections made to the integrated circuits. This is because connections to external circuits must be done through pins on the integrated circuit package, which are in part, a determinant of the size and cost of the integrated circuit.
In the instant case it is desirable in a low cost electronic device, e.g., a television receiver or radio receiver, to provide front panel audio/visual input jacks in a device having an internal volume control in an IC manufactured for processing an audio signal with no provision made for an external audio input. To incorporate such a desirable feature with such an IC would ordinarily require using a separate audio IC in order to provide a volume control for such an auxiliary audio signal. Such an approach would incur a considerable extra cost. Thus, to make maximum use of such an IC, it is desirable to combine or multiplex additional functions on or at a terminal/pin of an IC which had been previously dedicated by the IC manufacturer for other purposes. As used herein, the terms pin and terminal for an IC are synonymous.
The multiple use of an integrated circuit pin is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,434,474 of Best et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,293,870 of Steckler et al., of an antecessor of the assignee of the present patent application, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,769 of van Straaten. U.S. Pat. No. 5,594,442 of Paulos et al. shows a digital IC wherein connection of an external digital signal is made to an IC pin used for switching a digital de-emphasis circuit. U.S. Pat. No. 4,675,550 of Hafner shows using a single input terminal for two signals having differing voltage levels.